"That is happiness; to be disolved into something complete and great. When it comes to one, it comes as naturally as sleep." - Willa Cather

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Monday, 2 January 2012

10 lb weight loss, 5k

I have been feeling overwhelmed thinking about catching you guys up on what has been going on here in the US. I realized today that the only way I will get anything written is if I simply write about today.

And no, I have no New Year's resolutions, no best of lists. I am just not in that comfortable place in life where I can look beyond making it through each day.

But I guess you need a little background. SR is finally here and we have moved into our rented level of a house in downtown La Crosse, WI. The location is perfect. We can walk to the library, the YMCA, the food co-op, the bluffs and the Mississippi. The Lorax's new Waldorf school (where he starts when we get back from Mammoth Lakes, CA Jan. 15th) will be a bit of a trek, though, at 3.5 miles away.

SR left for a 36 hour ER shift last night. I ran to the grocery store with the kids in the freezing cold dark windy Wisconsinness and then we had a great night that involved a lot of bathtub nudity.

Today was the first sort of normal day in our new lives.

I set the alarm for seven. We ate breakfast: The Lorax ate four pieces of toast with Nutella and I ate a bowl of oatmeal with Fiber One on top. (Have you ever noticed that organic oatmeal tastes like dirt? I'm trying to figure out if I like that or not).

Then we arrived at YMCA number 1 in Onalaska. As we walked to the entrance from the car, both boys errupted in tears. They had never experienced such cold weather. And the wind!

I had trouble walking with the huge bag and Mattias in car seat because a couple of days ago I fell down our basement stairs and think I got a hairline fracture in my sternum or ripped some pectoralis muscle tendon insertions.

The YMCA here is holding a little treadmill 5k competition, so I decided to work that into my interval workout today.

It is so awesome how effortless running feels now that I am 10 lbs lighter (lost 10 lbs in the last two months). I dipped down to 108 lbs, but have now stabilized at 109. I always used to think this weight was too light for 5'6", but I've changed my mind. (basically, I needed a new challenge now that there are no races around here and weight loss was it. No I didn't decrease my running. Last week was 113 miles.)

Treadmill today:2 mile warmup at 7:30 pace1 mile interval at 5:58run to toiletrecovery 1 mile at 7:30, no pause1 mile interval at 6:08recovery 0.4 miles at 7:00 pace, no pause3.1 miles interval (5k) in 19:192 mile cooldown at around 8 min pace

I have decided to give up that stopping completely between intervals becuase I think it is injurious. I had thought I was going for a sub 19 5k, but then forgot to add that extra 0.1 miles into the equation while running. But it was still a PR. Of course I won't list it as an overall PR, but a treadmill PR (if I ever make that category).

I then did 15 minutes of core. It is hard to find things that don't hurt my sternum.

I got the kids. The Lorax ate lunch (two apples, two bananas and half a ham sandwich) and they had given Mattias a bottle of formula. I have not quite been able to keep up with his needs, so he gets about half a bottle a day above what I can produce. It may have something to do with my weight loss or it may not.

We then drove to the YMCA in La Crosse, where I could get more free day care!! :D I did 20 minutes on one of those machines that is sort of reminiscent of a Nordic Track but modernized to resemble an elliptical. I then did 50 lengths in the pool (just signed up for Copenhagen Challenge ironman yesterday, so I can't neglect swimming!). I picked up Mattias and The Lorax and we went to the Y's indoor playland. Good times. Seriously, it would not have been a good day for playing outside.

When we arrived home at 2:00 pm, The Lorax and Mattias both took a 3 hour nap and I worked. Ahhh. And had my second bowl of oatmeal for the day and a couple pieces of lefse.

I then cleaned for an hour, listened to Public Radio with Mattias watching me. He had an absolute explosion in his diaper and all over the high chair. Wow! It had been 5 days since the last one. The joys of giving formula. (SR is going to have a great time with that while I am in Honduras for 10 days at the end of this month.)

The Lorax had organic blueberry mini waffles with Nutella and ham circles (created by me with a bottle cap) for dinner. Sorry I just keep tossing organic out there, but I love the fact one can buy such cheap organic food in the US.

Right now we're sitting and watching Barbapapa in French, thinking of Piccola Pinecone and Marie Aline. And there is some hippi-ish sounding sitar music being played on Minnesota Public Radio.

Running song of the day Ärlighet Respekt Kärlek by Kent (great for intervals)

Oh, wow, Karen! Which restaurant is it? It may be cold but there is just ice, very little snow if any...

Heather, good point about the protein and fat. Oatmeal is fairly high in protein, but I have a lot of trouble digesting fat (an issue I've had my whole life) so I have to take it easy with that, though dark chocolate seems to be a safe source :). Once any sort of cream is involved I'm in trouble. Nuts are bad, too. You should have seen me moaning the morning after Christmas.

I found them! I found them! They're over here in Montreal, on my butt, my thighs but largely inside my belly. Yes, i am, of course, referring to those ten pounds that you lost. Anyway if you decide you need them back you know where to find them now (though i will probably be keeping them until at least March 3).Nice job on the treadmill 5 km. Speedster!Sounds like you are settling into a groove. Good for you guys!Mammoth Lakes?? Too weird, that is our number one contendor for where to spend our summer vacation (extended this year since we will both be on some form of parental leave).So nice to be thought of in the context of french... somedays mine is so broken feeling that i reallt question my decision to use french only with la cocotte.

Sealegs, I respect you and I enjoy your blog and I think you are an intelligent person with a good sense of humor. However, this post leaves me shocked and also a bit sad. Abviously, you are lacking goals in life right now and the most obvious idea for goal-setting is focusing on weight loss? Come on, you can do better than that. Why not focus on something truely productive like providing your child with food that is more nutritious than fructose, flour and highly refined vegetable oils? Or did you list your son´s menues in order to provoke and I have stepped right into the trap? Don´t get me wrong, I have no intention to try to educate you on nutrition, it is up to you what you put into your body, but if this is a typical day for your boy, it is a shame to leave a growing child that malnourished!

Nothing wrong with taking it day by day. I do that, too, and I haven't moved my family to another continent. I liked your comment about organic oatmeal. If you like oatmeal, I so highly recommend the steel cut variety. I promise it does not taste like dirt. I love it and could eat it every morning in the winter.Hang in there and enjoy a little cold and snow for me. It's nothing but rain here. :(

1.) Great to hear you signed up for that Ironman.2.) Sorry to hear you have hurt yourself :(3.) You rock don't let someone tell you otherwise. You just keep doing your thing your way! I'm older than you hence I'm wiser so mark my words .. you rock!

Whoah, whoah, whoah, anon! Now help me out!! I didn't think today was too bad for Christian's diet. Lots of fruit, ham sandwich, toast, blueberry waffles. What makes you think he is malnourished or am I missing something? Granted I need to try harder with the vegetables. I do mix it up from day to day.

Sounds to me like you're feeding the kiddos fine -- but feed yourself some more, especially some protein! Your body needs the energy, and 109# is lower than ideal. Take care of yourself, and pursue healthier goals. I'm sure you can find some!

Ok, a different poster here than the other "anonymous"-I am also a regular reader and would be happy to leave my name...I just wanted to say that the food you are feeding your children sounds darned healthy to me and I don't know what the h double hockey sticks that person is talking about. My thought was that you sound a little bit sad and I hope you are being kind to yourself. This is kind of still the postpartum-ish time, you know, when depression can sneak up....Hugs-Rebecca

Still feeling pressure to defend my son's diet here. Here is what he ate today:yogurt with fresh strawberries, water, nutella sandwich, three apples, one banana, water, peas with cheesy pasta and a donut(I caved there). I on the other hand have not improved and am down to 107 lbs today :(. Or am I happy? Just don't want to drop lower.

PPC, I thought you were completely bilingual! I think you are just being modest, though. I have tried to make The Lorax trilingual by speaking French with him, but had to face the fact that it is really hard when you are not totally fluent. So he calls it the language of Barbapapa and at least won't have much of an accent if he ever decides to learn it later.

Hi Sealegs! Happy to hear from you! I have been following your blog since I was pregnant last year, I delivered in April 2011. You are inspiring! In this post you do seem sad and like you are going through a rough life transitin, a lot of times thats when we focus on the food, because that's something we can control. Hang in there. Don't get too obsessed with seeing the number go down. Ditch the scale for a while and continue to be a role model to us readers and your kiddos!

I suggest you try amaranth sometime if you haven't already. It could be what you need to mix things up. It's very nutritious and I like it better than oatmeal. I find it best cooked only 18-20 minutes.

Hello from Rude Skov

Photo by Stine Sophie Winckel

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My name is Tracy. I am a physician scientist from the USA, living with my husband and two young boys in Denmark. I work as a post-doc fellow at Næstved Hospital. I have a scientific interest in vision loss, vision loss during exercise, exercise, running during pregnancy, MAF training as well as nutrition and health for athletes. I also have a love for music, physics, statistics, cycling, yoga, cross-country skiing, bla bla bal.

I was a member of Team USA at the IAU World Championships in Ultra Trail Running in 2013 in Wales. I am now training to run with Team Denmark at the IAU World Championships in Annency, France in May 2015.